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“I’m just saying, there are a lot of handsome men around here.Micah is something else.”
He’d shown her around the greenhouses and, predictably, at the end of the tour my mother was starry-eyed over him.“He’s too good-looking,” I opined.“Half the time I can’t hear what is coming out of his mouth because I’m too stunned by his face.”
“Who’s the other brother?Flint?The one who dropped off the cot?He seemed…gruff.”
That my mother’s code forrude.“He’s not so bad, actually.Stubborn.They all are.”
“Dylan was very attractive.”
We’d had a horseback riding lesson with him where he’d proven to be patient, quiet, and supportive.“His dad is the chef at the restaurant.”
“Oh, I noticed him,” my mother said in a knowing tone.
“Okay, Mom, jeez,” I laughed.“Besides, I think he’s in some complicated entanglement with Melinda.”
“That poor woman,” my mother sighed.“I enjoyed meeting her.”
“I think she enjoyed meeting you too.She liked talking about something other than her illness.”
“I enjoyed that tea she served,” my mother said.
“Of course you did.”
“It was good!”She said defensively.“And I do think it gave me a bit of a boost without making me feel jittery.I want to know what’s in it.”
“Dr.Barnes was going to send me a list of the ingredients, but I don’t think he ever did,” I said.“He must have forgotten.I can find out.”
“When we stop by to see Melinda tomorrow on the way to airport, I’ll see if she’ll give me some to take back to Baltimore.”She paused, then asked what she’d been working her way toward asking.“And what about Jasper?”
“What about Jasper?”
“Edith.Come on.I’m not a moron.And I’m not a prude.I know what’s happening between a man and woman when they look at each other the way you two do.”
I sighed.I wanted to talk about it, but I couldn’t explain the complexities.“It doesn’t really matter.I’ll go back to Baltimore soon.”
“When?”
“Soon,” I said.“I don’t know.I’m not done here.”
She took a deep breath.“Areyou coming back?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”I asked, trying too hard to sound casual.“That’s where my life is.”
“You can change your life, you know.I did.More than once.With good enough reason, anything is possible.And Jasper seems like a pretty good reason.”
My breath caught in my throat.Normally I would never consider uprooting my life for a man I’d just met, but the intensity of our connection and the surety of my feelings confused me.The moment we met, it was as if a door had opened where I’d thought there were only walls.The more time I spent in his expansive world, the more I realized how small and cramped my old life had been.And he was the center of it, the source of energy that made the world run.I wanted to be close to that energy, I wanted to feed it with my own and let it feed me.
But I couldn’t do that if he didn’t love me back.
I rubbed my face against the pillow for comfort.“Did you wake me up to talk about boys?”
“You woke me up,” she corrected.“You were making noises.”
I pulled the covers up over my face to hide my embarrassment.“Well, I’ll be quiet if you will.”
“Fine,” she said.With a few groans, she pushed herself up off the floor.She climbed back into the bed, then paused.“Edith, your father had a lot of good qualities.A lot.I loved him very much, once.And I still love the parts of him I see in you.”
I could barely squeeze words past the lump in my throat.“I love you too.”
